Afterthoughts!
Recently I offered to help my daughter and son-in-law however I might, in further developing an already fairly well established smaller business they have recently taken over, although, my son-in-law Tom, had in fact been a key operations guy in the business for years, his father and mother, now both deceased, had founded the business decades ago--probably thirty years back. Now then, why I've titled my comments here as "Afterthoughts" is that after I opened my big mouth and said I would help-and frankly excited about the prospect, it dawned on me that I had better do a darnned good job of helping or I'll never hear the end of it--I can hear my son-in-law now saying to my daughter (Megan) "big shot Ole' man, old school business guy, Chicago MBA, turnaround pro--right! How come we're no better off now after his involvement? Anyway, I've given it some thought and have decided to let you all come along for the ride, comment however you may and perhaps give my other kids something to talk about at cocktail parties!. In prior comments on this Wiki I've talked about the "five numbers" and "five things" needed to be sucessful in small business or for that matter any serious endevor, at least, in my experience. How do I intend to use these numbers/things/ideas to help my own family in a real life, serious project? First I'm going to try to understand the business--get an idea as to all of it's unique dynamics, decide how it really (not could or should) but how it really functions and, (here we go) where it really is now-earnings wise, relative to where it might be or where it might one day be capable of achieving, etc. I suppose the real question is where would Megan and Tom really like to see it--then, if deemed realistic or doable by all those involved and an agreeable consensus arrived at, help them develop a plan to actually realize that objective in the most expiditious, economical and practical way possible. And of course were not talking about an inflexible plan but a flexable one where we/they might make adjustments along the way--we should not be talking about changing the broader goal or objective but rather changes that might need be made along the way to insure we/they eventually get there! Incidetnally Tom and Megan have two children a beautiful young lady Amy who is in her pre teens (actually eleven) and a handsome young guy, Cole , whom is nine, both of course active young folks who justifiably require a good deal of attention, supervision and general parental nurturing. Why I bring these two (if I might say so myself) adorable grandchildren of mine (2 of 3) into the picture is because it could be possible Megan and Tom might like to dream one day of these two taking over the business--once the business helps put them through school and hopefully affords the parents a comfortable hey, let's shoot for prosperous, life style--now remember, its up to the two parents, the business owners, to really decide what it is they would like to accomplish in life, as not only business owners but individually and as a family, so on and so-forth--it could be of course they might just like to sell the business and do something else with their lives--whatever-of course major thoughts of this nature will surely impact our decision making as we proceed. Fundamentally then, what are the owners objectives--do they have any, have they given it any thought? As I've mentioned before at this point I usually make some comment such as "if you could wave a magic wand where might you as owner/s like to see the business say five years down the road? Perhaps, stabilized (however that might be defined) bigger, more profitable or of a more comfortable, manageable size, but as efficient as possible, with a best possible ROI or return on their investment--let's make this a ''little complicated by suggesting return on sales--an easier number to keep track of.'' Now then suppose we're able to arrive at a concensus as to where we would like to see the business five years out---and probably to cut through a bunch of theory here lets say the owners would like to see the company realize it's potential--all things considered--then its up to me to show those various possibilities and again to cut through all the theory, what might other similier companys be doing and how might one or a group of these so-called percieved successful companies compare i.e. of course there's got to be a lot of research behind all this but for the sake of telling this story lets just say, from an earnings prospective (or we could use market share wise, reputation wise or whatever) where does our company now stand relativeto these type objectives? Where do we start? We start where we are!---------Whoa, it has just dawned on me perhaps these young folks (young of course compared to me) might not like my waving all of their operations detail all over some so-called Wiki--so probably along the way here somewhere I might want to alter some of the facts a bit just to protect the innocent. But for now, lets tell it like it is! It's really a carpet cleaning business--they have a two or three very expensive, custom designed vans that go to customers homes--run hoses in through the front door (or wherever) and very effectively scrub the carpet--better than the competition- or so they claim! Ok, fast forward a couple of months--I've just gotten back from visiting the family in their north western suburb of a larger mid-western metropolitan area--they have winters! So there maybe a seasonal effect, whatever. Anyway I went for a visit primarily to help them set up a workable cash budgeting system--my daughter said she really didn't know where the company stood most of the time cash needs wise relative to what cash there might actually be available--ok wait a minute let's slow down--I found there was a hell of a lot going on--let's call it static! Let me explain: